In fact, traditionalism dominates the beer landscape to the extent that you’ll only find certain styles in certain regions: pilsner up north, helles down south, and some styles that can even be narrowed down to individual townships.

It’s these long-standing traditions that have influenced German brewers for generations. More recently established craft breweries have been attempting to push the envelope of tradition, creating hybrid styles and flavours based on old world beers.

However, it seems that even in one of the world’s main beer birthplaces, the progress and innovation of the micro-brewing industry has been stifled.

Craft brews and the associated bar scene has been slower to take off, and any talk of the ‘craft bubble’ experienced in the US and the UK is yet to emerge.

“Craft beer, at least our definition of the term, is very regionalised in Germany. It tends to be confined to the larger metropolitan areas like Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen or Munich,” says Devin Duffy Meade, a Dubliner who cut his craft teeth with Galway Bay Brewery before moving to Berlin to work with BRLO Brewhouse.

BRLO began as a craft start-up and having gypsy-brewed since 2014, it has just opened its own 20-hectolitre brewery and restaurant in the German city.

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Meanwhile, Stone Brewing, the Californian craft trailblazer, also recently opened in Berlin – its first brewery outside the US – while Brewdog opened its first pub there late last year too.

Germany’s strong beer culture teamed with its liberal licencing laws can play a massive part in the success of young breweries starting out.

“We can brew and sell directly to our customers without the need to go through a distributor or third party. This means customers can purchase crates and kegs directly at our brewery door, or we can fill and sell directly on our premises.

“This helps us as a brewery: the more money we take in directly, the more we can reinvest in the company. It is a real shame that this is not the case back home.”

“Craft beer in Ireland has reached a point where the ‘little guys’ are taking on the big boys head-to-head, competing for the same tap-handles and shelf space. In Germany the craft segment is still relatively small. We have not yet reached a level where we are fighting for the same hearts and minds.

“Right now, there is plenty of room for new breweries to form and for the market to grow and develop. In fact, many brewers can make a healthy living with their own tap room, without the pressure to grow aggressively,” says Duffy Meade.